Lectins belong to the pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs) class and play important roles in the recognition and elimination of pathogens via the innate immune system. Recently, it was reported that lily-type lectin-1 is involved when a pathogen attacks in the early immune response of fish. However, this study is limited to information that the lectin is involved in the innate immune response against viral infection. In the present study, the lily-type lectin-2 and -3 of Oplegnathus fasciatus (OfLTL-2 and 3) have been presented to be included B-lectin domain and two D-mannose binding sites in the amino acid sequence that an important feature for the fundamental structure. To investigate the functional properties of OfLTLs, the tissue distribution in the healthy rock bream and temporal expression during early developmental stage analysis are performed using quantitative real-time PCR. OfLTL-2 and 3 are predominantly expressed in the liver and skin, but rarely expressed in other organ. Also, the transcripts of OfLTLs are not expressed during the early developmental stage but its transcripts are increased after immune-related organs which are fully formed. In the challenge experiment with RBIV (rock bream iridovirus), the expression of OfLTLs was increased much more strongly in the late response than the early, unlike previously known. These results suggest that OfLTLs are specifically expressed in the immune-related tissues when those organs are fully formed and it can be inferred that the more intensively involved in the second half to the virus infection.

With the object of examining the effects of horticultural therapy based on structural recall by developmental stage on cognitive, emotional, and hand functions of institutionalized elderly, this study executed a horticultural therapy program once a week and through a total of 14 sessions during the period from May 2 to December 5, 2013. The subjects of this study were 34 elders admitted to S Geriatric hospital for geriatric diseases, and they were divided into a control group and an experimental group. Because the program was designed for institutionalized elders who were able to do only indoor activities, it provided various seasonal horticultural activities that could be done even in a limited space by giving materials and subjects that could be recalled by developmental stage. The results of this study are as follows. As to changes in cognitive functions (MSQ) after the horticultural therapy program, the control group showed a decrease as having more negative ranks, and the experimental group showed an increase as having more positive ranks, but such changes in the control and experimental groups were not significant. As to changes in emotional functions after the horticultural therapy program, the control group showed a decrease but without significance in ego integrity as having more negative ranks, and the experimental group showed an increase with significance as having more positive ranks (P=0.020). As to the experimental group’s changes in the sub factors of ego integrity, positive ranks increased in all the sub-factors and the increase was particularly significant in satisfaction with present life (P=0.038). As to changes in life satisfaction, the control group showed increased positive ranks but without significance, and the experimental group showed significantly increased positive ranks (P=0.022). As to the experimental group’s changes in the sub-factors of life satisfaction, changes in denial of the past (P=0.029) and denial of the future (P=0.016) were particularly significant. As to changes in hand functions, both the control and experimental groups showed some improvement in pinch after the horticultural therapy program but the changes were not significant. Grip strength did not change in the control group, and in the experimental group right-hand grip strength was improved slightly more than left-hand one, the difference was not significant. The results of this study suggest that horticultural therapy based on structural recall by developmental stage is effective in improving institutionalized elders’ emotional functions and, consequently, can contribute to higher quality of life, which is the ultimate goal of elders.

Freesia is one of the most popular flowers over the world including Korea, due to the fragrance and beauty of the plant flower. The first domestic freesia cultivar ‘Shiny Gold’ was developed by NIHHS, RDA, in 2003, which has yellow double and large petals and strong fragrance. Ten years have passed since ‘Shiny Gold’ was cultivated at floral farms, and the deterioration of cut flower quality and yield are reported from the farms. Virus infection causes a reduction in the quantity and quality of the cut freesia flowers and is one of the most serious problems in Korea. Virus detection was carried by reverse transcription polymer chain reaction (RT-PCR) for FreMV, FreSV, BYMV, CMV, and TRV, as known to infect freesia. FreMV, FreSV, BYMV, and TRV were detected single or multiply, and CMV was not found in the freesia leaves collected from the farms. To produce virus-free freesia, meristem culture of ‘Shiny Gold’ was conducted in MS medium added ribavirin at different concentration. As the increased of ribavirin concentration, the growth of ‘Shiny Gold’ plantlets was inhibited in freesia’Shiny Gold’. The plantlets produced by meristem culture in ‘Shiny Gold’ were virus free at the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) level.

A freesia (Freesia hybrida Hort.) ‘Cutie Red’ was developed for the pot flower in the National Institute of Horticultural Herbal Science in 2014. This hybrid was crossed and selected from a seedling of three-way crossing the seedling of ‘Volcano’ and ‘Sailor’ with ‘Figaro’, and ‘Suzy’ in 2006 and 2010, respectively. Morphological characteristics of the selected freesia hybrid were investigated for 3 years from 2011 to 2013, and then it was named ‘Cutie Red’ in 2014. ‘Cutie Red’ has single and red petals (RHS, R45A) with yellow-orange color of center (RHS, YO21B). The average flower width is 5.3 cm and the average yield is 4. The growth of the plant is vigorous and the average height is 70.3 cm, and it is shorter than about 15.4 cm that of control cultivar ‘Red Race’. The average number of floret per stalk and stalk length, 10.7, and the stalk was 9.6 cm length, shorter than ‘Red Lace’, 13 and 11.7 cm length, respectively. The first flowering, in avarage, of ‘Cutie Red’ takes about 141 days, and it’s average vase life and yield is 9.7 days and 5 cormlets per plant, respectively.

In order to improve high persistence and forage quality, through selection of various superior parental varieties for breeding and synthesis of them with new lines, there are ongoing worldwide studies aiming to enhance the quality of tall fescue through a traditional breeding method by selection and hybridization. A new tall fescue variety (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.), named Greenmaster3ho, was developed by the National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration in Korea from 2010 to 2014. For synthetic seed production of this new variety, five superior clones, 09XFa02, 09XFa03, 09XFa11, 09XFa13, and 09XFa14 were selected and polycrossed. The agronomic growth characteristics and forage production capability of the seeds were studied at Cheonan from 2010, and regional trials were conducted in Cheonan, Hoengseong, Jeju, and Jinju from 2012 to 2014. Greenmaster3ho showed enhanced disease resistance, persistence, and regrowth ability as compared to Fawn. The dry matter yield of Greenmaster 2 was 29% higher (15,119 kg/ha) than that of Fawn. However, the nutritive value of both varieties was similar. This study developed a new tall fescue variety with excellent environmental adaptability, aiming to make a contribution to the vitalization of the Korean grassland industry.

Genome sequencing researches for considerable numbers of crops and wild plants are being developed. Cytogenetic researches according to chromosome number and size are essential to confirm and comprehend ploidy level and genome size before genome sequencing project is actually conducted. Cytogenetic researches on six food crop plants were carried out by DAPI staining and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) method. Fagopyrum esculentum Moench showed 2n=2x=16, each chromosome length of 1.42㎛ to 1.77㎛, total chromosome length of 13.31㎛, and karyotypic formula of 2n=8m; Phaseolus angularis W.F. Wight, 2n=2x=22, 2.01㎛ to 3.84㎛, total 28.03㎛, 2n=9m+2sm, Perilla frutescens var. japonica Hara, 2n=2x=40, 1.73㎛ to 2.76㎛, total 44.36㎛, 2n=5m+13sm+2st. Chromosome sizes of the other three species such as, Panicum miliaceum L., 2n=2x=36, total chromosome length of 30.83㎛, Sesamum indicum L., 2n=2x=26, 27.39㎛, lpomoea batatas L., 2n=2x=30, total 33.51㎛ were too small for each chromosome type to be identified and analyzed. The result of FISH analysis using 5S and 45S rDNA probe showed species-specific chromosome locations in the genome. These preliminary analyses were carried out to decide which food crop to prioritize for genome sequencing. This work was supported by the “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (No.PJ009837), Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

Genetically modified (GM) papaya (Carica papaya L.) line 55-1 (55-1), which is resistant to papaya ringspot virus infection, has been marketed internationally. Many countries such as the European Union, Japan, and Korea have a mandatory safety assessment, approval and labeling regulations for GM foods. Thus, there is a need for specific methods for detecting 55-1. In this study, we established a real-time PCR detection method applicable to 55-1 for a variety of papaya products. The limit of detection was possible for fresh papaya fruit up to dilutions of 0.005% and 0.01% (weight per weight [w/w]) for homozygous SunUp and heterozygous Rainbow cultivars, respectively, in non-GM papaya. The 55-1 event-specific detection method observed parallelism (r2>0.99) between the concentration of line 55-1 cultivars and Ct values obtained in amplification plots at concentrations of 0.005-10% for SunUp DNA and 0.01-10% for Rainbow DNA. The method was applicable to the qualitative detection in various types of processed products (cocktail fruit, dried fruit, juice, etc.) containing papaya as a main ingredient. Monitoring papaya products for the presence of GM papaya were demonstrated using a P35S and T-nos real-time PCR detection method but no amplification signals were detected.

A freesia (Freesia hybrida Hort.) ‘Song of Angel’ was developed for the cut flower in the National Institute of Horticultural Herbal Science in 2013. This hybrid was crossed and selected from a seedling of three-way crossing ‘Golden Flame’ and the seedling of ‘Athene’ and ‘Yvonne’ in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Morphological characteristics of the selected freesia hybrid were investigated for 5 years from 2008 to 2012, and then it was named ‘Song of Angel’ in 2013. ‘Song of Angel’ has single flower and yellow petals (RHS, YG13B) with yellow center color (RHS, YG13A). The average flower width is 5.8 cm and the average yield is 4.3. The growth of the plant shows vigorous and the average height is 95.3cm, and it is higher than about 30cm that of control cultivar ‘Yvonne’. The average number of floret per stalk and stalk length, 14.3, and stalk was 11.1 cm length is higher than the ‘Yvonne’, 9.7 and 8.3cm length, respectively. The average days to first flowering of ‘Song of Angel’, 141 days, was approximately 10 days earlier than the control cultivar. It’s average vase life and yield is 10.7 days and 6.2 cormlets per plant, respectively.

Acinetobacter baumannii is usually considered an opportunistic pathogen that it responsible for a variety of nosocomial infections, such as, pneumonia, tracheobronchitis, meningitis, endocarditis, peritonitis, skin and soft tissue infections, and urinary tract infections. However, over the years, the organism has developed substantial antimicrobial resistance, and thus, the management of infections has become more difficult. The less common infective endocarditis is one of the more serious consequences of nosocomial bacteremia. Here, we report the successful treatment of the first case of multidrug-resistant A. baumannii endocarditis in a 33-year-old patient.

Totally, 26 collections, 17 from Korea and 9 from China, were investigated for their sequences of 5S rDNA, especially the non-transcribed spacers (NTSs). Sequences of 5S rDNA were isolated by PCR using the primers, 5s-rRNA1 and 5s-rRNA2. Genomic DNA PCR produced single amplification of 300, 330, or 350 base pair fragments. Sequence analysis revealed that all inserts contained the part of 5S rDNA gene sequence and the full length of the NTS region. Three different sizes of the fragments were confirmed due to different size of NTS and their length were 300bp, 330bp and 350bp, respectively. Among 17 Korean foxtail millets tested, 14 collections showed single 300bp amplification. Longest fragment amplification, 350bp, was obtained only from the foxtail millet from China origin, even though 2 of them include 300bp fragment. CLUSTALW multiple alignments of 26 foxtail millets clearly revealed 4 areas with certain degree of sequence heterogeneity (region I, II, III, IV). Among 4 boxed areas, foxtail millet genotypes from China have distinct insertion especially in region III. Five of them have extra insertion of sequence and their additional sequences were either 45 or 48 base pair. Three Korean foxtail millets have 32 bp insertion. Other 8 Korean collections have short insert sequences (6 to 8 bp), 3 with 8 bp and 5 with 6 bp. In addition to insert, deletion sequences were also confirmed as major deletion was observed in region II of Chinese collection. The size of deletion was 7 bp long. According to phylogenic tree constructed using MEGA4 program, clear grouping was not revealed. To obtain more convincing results various collections from many countries should be obtained and analyzed to distinguish different germplasm from different origin.

Twenty two common millet (Panicum miliaceum L.) varieties collected from Korea, China and Russia were investigated for their phylogenetic relationship using 5S ribosomal DNA sequences with a hope to provide the basic information on their exact origin. Sequences of 5S rDNA were isolated by PCR. The primers, 5s-rRNA1 and 5s-rRNA2, were designed to isolate the complete NTS. Genomic DNA amplification produced two fragments with different length, 900 bp and 400 bp fragments, confirming the presence of two types of 5S rDNA repeats that differed from each other in the length of the NTS region. Amplified DNAs of 400 bp fragment were subcloned and used for further investigation. The obtained NTS sequences ranged from 200 to 300 bp and homology of sequences among plant materials was much higher than long repeat. CLUSTALW multiple aligment of 5S rDNA sequences from 22 different common millets revealed the clear difference by their origin. And critically different areas with insert or deletion were also confirmed. Those sequence difference seems to be used for discrimination of cultivars from different origin and use as molecular markers for origin identification. In phylogenic tree construction, the clear classification was shown where the genotypes from China and Russia is positioned together and stay away from domestic genotypes.

Cereal seeds, sorghum, foxtail millet, hog millet, adlay, and corn are traditionally used as health assistant as well as energy supplying food in Korea. While beneficial phytochemicals to human have revealed in cereals, the information on peptides from cereals is far less accumulated than major reserve protein. Here, we analyzed peptide profiles using surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS) in cereal seeds for construction of peptide information and attempted to develop peptide biomarkers for cereal identification. To optimize the analysis condition of SELDI-TOF MS, the effect of dilution factor on binding affinity to protein chips was tested using CM10 and Q10 arrays. Peptide clusters were significantly different at the level of 0.01 p-value. Peak spectra were the most stable in 1:50 of dilution factor in both chip arrays. Numbers of detected peak of 5 cereal seeds were 131 in CM10 and 74 in Q10 array. Each cereal was grouped as a cluster and well discriminated into different cluster in the level of 0.01 p-value. Numbers of potentially identified peptide biomarkers are 11, 13, 9, 5 and 12 in sorghum, foxtail millet, hog millet, adlay and corn, respectively. This study demonstrates that each cereal seed have own distinguishable specific peptides although their function are not identified yet in this study. In addition, the proteomic profiling using SELDI-TOF MS techniques could be a useful and powerful tool to discover peptide biomarker for discrimination and assess crop species, especially under 20 kDa.